Wafer Demand Increased 3.8% in 2012

Phoenix, AZ - January 23rd, 2013 -- Semico recently released our Quarterly Wafer Demand Summary and Data, and as usual, there is good news and bad news. The good news is, manufacturing yields on 28nm have improved so for the time being, capacity is no longer a constraint in the supply chain.

The bad news is, while holiday sales started off on a high note, they were unable to sustain the growth through the end of the year. Semico believes the slow holiday season, along with a drop in consumer confidence, has encouraged the electronics supply chain to continue to maintain conservative inventories.

Our Quarterly Wafer Demand Summary and Data report has data that goes back to 1991. The report looks at the overall market and then breaks down DRAM, NAND, MPUs, MCUs, DSPs, Communication MOS Logic, Analog and Discretes, and Optoelectronics.

The Semico unit forecast is one of the main inputs to the wafer demand model. Other inputs include process technology by product, die sizes, yields and wafer size. On a regular basis, Semico analyzes semiconductor products by manufacturing technology, die size, yields, and technology roadmaps. This information is based on data collection over the past 15 years and interviews with hundreds of companies.

If you follow the wafer demand market, then you know it is anything but stable. There is almost a 50-point spread between the peak growth year to the worst year of decline. Even if we throw out the worst year (-23% decline in 2001) and the best year (25% growth in 1995) the change in wafer demand growth rates still ranges from -2.7% up to 24.9%.

About Semico

We are a semiconductor marketing & consulting research company located in Phoenix, Arizona. Semico was founded in 1994 by a group of semiconductor industry experts. We have improved the validity of semiconductor product forecasts via technology roadmaps in end-use markets.